With a sick kid, advice and remedies are everywhere. But age-old treatments handed down by well-meaning family members or friends may not work. In fact, they could even be dangerous for your tot. Read on for the top 9 mistakes smart parents make with their kids. Then find out what really works...

With kids, there are two things you can count on: that they’ll get sick or injured – most likely both – and that you’ll get plenty of advice on what to do when either happens.

“New parents get a lot of ‘anecdotal medicine’ from friends or relatives who say, ‘My mother or grandmother always did this [fill in the blank],” says Thomas J. Vento, M.D., a family physician at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. “Everyone has a story.”

While grandma and your mom pals may mean well, the information they pass on may not be accurate.

Health advice changes with new research. What was common practice a few years ago – for example, using different types of thermometers or making kids vomit when they swallow something toxic – are debunked today.

To add to the confusion, a wide variety of opinions can be found online, even among physicians themselves.

No wonder even smart parents blunder when treating their sick children.

Here are nine of the most common mistakes parents make when tending to their kids’ health. Are you guilty of making them?

Sick Kid Mistake #1: Using the wrong thermometer.Taking a child’s temperature isn’t that complicated – or is it?

Actually, getting a true reading when your child has a fever depends on the thermometer you choose, how you use it and your kid’s age.

Of the five basic types of thermometers on the market, a digital thermometer is the most accurate, says Luke Beno, M.D., a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente in Atlanta.

Glass mercury thermometers, though accurate, are no longer considered safe because of the risk of inhaling the mercury if broken.

Digital thermometers are best used orally or, in infants, rectally, Dr. Beno says.

“Some parents put the thermometer under the arm and then add a degree, but that’s not accurate,” he says. “In the first year of life, the only accurate temperature is rectal.”

With babies and older kids in the house, buy two digital thermometers – one for the mouth and another for the rectum. Mark them clearly so you don’t mix them up.

Sick Kid Mistake #2: Treating a low-grade fever with acetaminophen/ibuprofen. Most parents believe a fever is any reading above 98.6˚. Not doctors. They use the actual medical definition of 100.4˚.

“Too many people consider 99˚ to be a fever,” Dr. Beno says. “That’s not a fever.”

Call a pediatrician if an infant younger than 3 months old has a temperature of 100.4˚ or higher. If they’re 3-6 months old, the threshold is 101˚; 103˚ if older.

Don’t head for the medicine cabinet to snuff out the first signs of rising body temperature, doctors advise.

“Parents freak out when their child has a fever, thinking it’ll cook the brain,” Dr. Beno says. “One hundred and nine degrees is theoretically where brain damage occurs, but I’ve seen kids with strep and fevers of 109˚, and they’ve been fine.”

What’s worrisome is the fever’s cause - not the high body temperature, he says.

“Fever is a good sign of a robust immune system,” Dr. Beno says. “It prevents viruses and bacteria from multiplying.”

Fever actually speeds recovery from viral infections, according to a clinical report published last year in the medical journal Pediatrics.

In most cases, if your child is healthy and up-to-date on immunizations, including the annual flu vaccine, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends using fever reducers to make kids more comfortable – not to get their body temperatures down to normal.

Your child’s behavior and other symptoms (sore throat, earache, rash, diarrhea or vomiting) are better barometers of how sick he is than the thermometer reading, pediatric experts say.

“If your child has a fever and is running around and playing, you don’t need to treat that,” Dr. Beno says.

When do you treat them? According to Hernando Cardona, M.D., a pediatrician with Windermere Pediatrics in Orlando, parents “can and should try a fever reducer” if their child:

Is behaving out of character

Seems uncomfortably cranky or tired

Has muscle pain with his fever

Or you just have a gut feeling he’s not well

Sick Kid Mistake #3: Using a children’s multisymptom cold medication. When kids are achy, sneezy, sniffly and coughing, it’s almost instinctive to give them over-the-counter cold medications to make them feel better.

Don’t be so quick to reach for them, because there’s no evidence that cold medications do anything to relieve cold symptoms in children under 12, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

For younger children, they’re potentially hazardous. Cough and cold medications are among the most common reasons for calls to poison control centers, according to a Stanford University study updated in 2011.

In fact, these preparations were taken off the market in 2007 and 2008, after products containing various mixes of decongestants, cough suppressants, antihistamines and expectorants were linked to a rash of accidental overdoses and deaths, mainly in tots under 2.

Still, these products lurk in household medicine cabinets: In a 2011 C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital poll of 300 parents with kids 6 months to 2 years old, 61% had given their child a multisymptom cold medication within the last year.

Here’s how pediatricians advise parents to handle a cold:

Use humidifiers (warm or cool mist) to keep airways moist so that kids can breathe easier.

Apply saline nose drops and sprays to reduce the inflammation in nasal passages for better breathing. Buy these over the counter or make your own with 1/4 teaspoon of salt in a cup of water.

Use bulb syringes to clear out babies’ noses so they can breathe. Put a few drops of saline nasal solution in one nostril at a time, then use the bulb syringe to suction out the mucus.

Try buckwheat honey, which quiets a nighttime cough, according to a study in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Give 1 teaspoon before bedtime – but only to children over age 1. (Never offer honey to infants under 12 months old. It can cause infant botulism.)

Sick Kid Mistake #4: Pestering your pediatrician for antibiotics. If you’re begging for an antibiotic to knock out your kid’s cold or flu, save your breath. It’s not that doctors are holding out on you, it’s that antibiotics work only on bacterial infections.

Giving children antibiotics when they’re not needed helps breed drug-resistant bacteria, so they’re less effective when they are needed.

Plus, antibiotics can trigger other problems, such as diarrhea, yeast infections and allergic reactions, says Ari Brown, M.D., American Academy of Pediatrics spokeswoman and author of several parenting books, including Expecting 411, Baby 411 and Toddler 411.

If your child has a cold, there’s not much you can do beyond comfort measures, except wait it out, she says.

But for the flu – which can be confirmed by rapid flu test within the first 48 hours of symptoms – pediatricians can use antiviral medications, such as Tamiflu, to shorten the flu’s duration by a day or two.

“Normally, we say you can wait a few days with fever, but not if it’s flu season,” Dr. Beno says. “If [the flu] is in your area and your child has a high fever and body aches, they should absolutely [see the pediatrician], especially if they have a chronic health condition like diabetes or asthma, or they’re under 5.”

Sick Kid Mistake #5: Measuring medication with a kitchen teaspoon.Teaspoons in everyday silverware vary and may hold as much as 7.3 ml or as little as 2.5 ml, according to a Greek study published in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Clinical Practice in 2010.

Use that, and you can end up giving your child the wrong dose, Dr. Brown says.

A “true” teaspoon – like the one you use to cook and bake with – equals 5 milliliters (ml).

That’s why parents should always use the measuring teaspoon or the device packaged with the medication, she says.

Attach it to the bottle with a rubber band so you can easily find it at 3 a.m. – when you’re most likely to need it.

If you force her to vomit it back up, “the esophagus gets burned twice,” Dr. Beno warns.

If your child swallows any potentially toxic substance – including over-the-counter and prescription medications – call the national Poison Control hotline at (800) 222-1222 immediately. Operators will give you precise instructions on what to do. (The hotline operates 24/7.)

Sick Kid Mistake #7: Putting a cold pack on a burn. When kids burn fingers – or any body part – it’s important to act fast and cool the area down. Otherwise, the skin continues to burn even after they snatch their hand away, Dr. Beno says.

Apply cold water or ice to the area, but avoid a freezer pack, he advises. (A bag of frozen veggies or fruit works too.)

“Ice melts when it’s close to your skin, but freezer packs have different chemical properties that let them stay cold a lot longer,” Dr. Beno explains. “Hold them against skin long enough and they can actually cause frostbite.”

Take your child to the pediatrician for serious burns, or if pain and redness lasts more than a few hours.

Sick Kid Mistake #8: Treating nausea with Pepto-Bismol. This go-to upset-tummy remedy has the aspirin compound bismuth subsalicylate, and giving aspirin to any child under 18 when they have a virus (particularly chickenpox and flu) can cause a potentially fatal liver infection called Reye syndrome. (Stick with acetaminophen and ibuprofen to relieve pain or fevers, doctors advise.)

No cases of Reye syndrome with Pepto-Bismol have been reported, but “the potential risk is there, which is why using it is discouraged,” Dr. Brown says.

Don’t reach for the hot pink liquid without consulting your pediatrician first because you don’t know for certain whether your kid’s stomachache was caused by gorging on too much candy, by a bacterial or parasitic infection, or by the early stages of flu, she advises.

Also, because aspirin can go by several names, scan the ingredients list of any medication and steer clear if it contains acetylsalicylic acid, the chemical name for aspirin, or variations such as acetylsalicylate, salicylate or salicylic.

“Always read the labels, even on medications you’ve used before, because formulations change,” Dr. Vento advises. If you’re unsure whether a medication is safe to give your child, ask your pharmacist or physician.

For tummy aches, the better remedy is Maalox, a mild laxative and antacid, Dr. Beno says.

“It won’t hurt and may help encourage a bowel movement,” he adds. “Sometimes kids have pain when they’re constipated. Then they poop and are fine.”

Sick Kid Mistake #9: Feeding the BRAT diet for diarrhea. The bland, easily digestible menu of bananas, rice, applesauce and toast (BRAT) has fallen out of favor as pediatricians’ favorite home remedy for diarrhea.

“It doesn’t necessarily treat the diarrhea and you might have a kid who doesn’t want to eat those foods,” Dr. Brown says.

Though it may seem counterintuitive, you should encourage kids with diarrhea to eat, particularly foods that are high in fat and fiber, such as scrambled eggs, avocado, hamburger, chicken or turkey, dried fruit, beans or green vegetables. These two nutrients help bulk up poop and reduce fluid loss, she says.

Dehydration associated with diarrhea often lands kids in the hospital for treatment with intravenous fluids.

“Some kids eat better if you let them eat what they usually do,” Dr. Brown says.

The BRAT diet can be helpful, however, for a child who has been vomiting, after it stops.

“The idea is to gradually progress to normal food without making them throw up,” Dr. Cardona says.

If it’s been an hour since your child threw up, offer small amounts of water or a rehydration solution like Pedialyte – a teaspoon at a time every 5 minutes.

When they can keep that down, give them lactose-free milk, soy milk or milk-based liquid nutritional supplements for protein, which helps the gut recover, Dr. Cardona says.

If that goes smoothly, the BRAT diet provides a gentle transition to solid food again.

How Much Do You Know About Child Safety?Protecting your child is likely a natural instinct for you, but how much do you know about kid safety? Walking into stores filled with child safety gates, car seats and other products can be overwhelming. Take this child-safety quiz to gauge your knowledge.

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